The Lexicon
The heart qualities
Compassion
Compassion is the trembling of the heart in response to suffering, joined to the wish that it be eased. It is love turned toward pain, the willingness to draw near rather than turn away, to hold another's wound and one's own with the same tenderness. The traditions name it the very signature of an awakened being.
Carried by 8 teachers · across 3 traditions · 4 quotes
In Buddhism it is karuna, one of the four immeasurable abodes, and tonglen breathes in the world's pain and breathes out relief. In the Christian way it is mercy, the Samaritan's stooping. To cultivate compassion is to widen the circle until no one, not even the self, is left outside it, and to find in that widening the boundlessness that was always your nature.
In their words
If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.Dalai Lama XIV
Compassion is the keen awareness of the interdependence of all things.Thomas Merton
The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths.Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
Out of compassion I destroy the darkness of their ignorance. From within them I light the lamp of wisdom.Bhagavad Gita 10:11